The Way Of Life

Morning stretches … energetic flow brings a sweat to my brow, my cheeks. I sit in contemplation about my family, my friends both near and far, and I send them love and peace. I think of the animals in the world and send them kindness.. I work for balance between us all where compassion binds ‘we’ together.

I open my book of “The Way of Life” according to Lao Tzu and I share what I find there.

‘Yield and you need not break’:Bent you can straiten,Emptied you can hold,Torn you can mend;And as want can reward youSo wealth can bewilder.Aware of this, a wise man has the simple returnWhich other men seek:Without inflaming himselfHe is kindled,Without explaining himselfIs explained,Without taking creditIs credited,Laying no claimIs acclaimedAnd, because he does not compete,Finds peaceful competence.How true is the old saying,‘Yield and you need not break’!How completely it comes home!

On the opposite page there is another about nature, and since they both arrived together this morning, I will share it as well, for perhaps this is the one that will strike a cord in you, ever revving your creative connective flow.

Nature does not have to insist,Can blow for only half a morning,Rain for only half a day,And what are these winds and these rains but natural?If nature does not have to insist,Why should man?It is natural tooThat whoever follows the way of life feels alive,That whoever uses it properly feels well used,Whereas he who loses the way of life feels lost,That whoever keeps to the way of lifeFeels at home,Whoever uses it properlyFeels welcome,Whereas he who uses it improperlyFeels improperly used:‘Fail to honor people,They fail to honor you.’

There are systems in place which are controlling the weather, misusing the nature of things. The disconnect grows and the angst between people does as well. My hope is that more will come to realize the saneness in the words of Lao Tzu and embrace a change of thought, of heart, and of ‘doing’.